JSIF Wins JIE Engineering Project of the Year Award
By: December 13, 2022 ,The Full Story
The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) has received the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) 2022 Engineering Project of the Year Award for the Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project.
The $1.3-billion project, which is designed to safeguard the Port Royal Street corridor from the effects of storm surges, entails construction of one kilometre of composite seawall and armour stone revetment structure, upgrading of drainage features, rehabilitation and raising of one kilometre of existing roadway and installation of a 4.7-metre-wide boardwalk to improve the site’s aesthetics and promote recreational activity along the shoreline.
An 40-metre fishing beach was also created for fisherfolk in the area.
Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Managing Director of JSIF, Omar Sweeney, said that the agency is “quite pleased” to be this year’s winner of the JIE’s Engineering Project of the Year Award, having been previously nominated.
He pointed out that the project is being recognised for “the improvement of downtown Kingston and the potential that it shows in the creation of a recreational space for citizens and the necessary action of coastal protection”.
“Being recognised for these types of things is certainly great. Further to that, as an engineer myself, to know that I have been able to lead the development of a project like this is certainly special to me. I just think overall, it’s been a great project for Jamaica, and we just look forward to continuing to do these types of national imperatives and be able to bolster the resilience of our country,” he noted.
Mr. Sweeney thanked the team at JSIF and the agency’s partners for their role in making the project a success.
The Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project was among a group of five projects that were nominated for the JIE Engineering Project of the Year Award for 2022.
The work was implemented over a two-year period and the project was officially handed over on May 18, 2022.
The Port Royal Street Coastal Revetment Project was funded through a loan agreement between the Government of Jamaica and the World Bank and forms part of JSIF’s World Bank-funded Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) to enhance Jamaica’s resilience to negative climate-change impacts.